This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Are you sick of your emotions, or are they sick of you? The Delray Beach Public Library offers a three-part lecture by Dr. Laura Feoglio called "Can Emotions Make You Sick?" We all know emotional outbursts can feel good, but too many can turn us into sobbing gelatinous messes. A few side effects include high blood pressure, ulcers, irritable bowel syndrome, cold sores, migraines, and chronic backache. Emotional stress also impacts our nutritional balance and vitamin and mineral needs. Modern research has shown that stress can even increase or decrease the amount you eat. That explains why those emo kids are always so skinny and whiny. Check out Feoglio's lecture at the Delray Beach Public Library (29 SE Fourth Ave., Delray Beach) and find out if you've been a victim of emotional stress. Lecture starts at 2 p.m. Call 561-266-9490.

FRI 9/19

In California in the early '80s, telephone poles, alleys, and benches became a canvas for punk bands. Posters and fliers peppered the urban landscape, advertising a secret underground of misfits and outcasts. One of the artists whose work hit the streets was Raymond Pettibon, the half-brother of Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn and the image maker for albums such as Sonic Youth's Goo, Black Flag's Slip It In, and the Minutemen's What Makes a Man Start Fires? His honest and cynical artwork critiqued a society in decline with only black ink and an even blacker sense of humor, sometimes letting just a phrase grace the paper. The Museum of Contemporary Art (Joan Lehman Bldg., 770 NE 125th St., North Miami) hosts a panel discussion with Pettibon and unveils a collection of his drawings, including a mural done on-site. The event also includes an exhibit by New Yorker cartoonist Saul Steinberg. Check out icons of underground art at 7 p.m. A reception follows at 8 p.m. Cost is $5. Call 305-893-6211.

As residents of one of the ten states that still allow midwives to deliver babies, it only makes sense that the Midwives Association of Florida would host a night of music and dance, right? The Takada Women's Ensemble performs African percussion and drumming, and Oriente dishes out some hot tropical and Latin rhythms. It'll be more fun than 47 hours of labor, guaranteed! And on Sunday, Ina May Gaskin, renowned midwife and author, presents a lecture on the joys of midwifery. Put on your dancing shoes and party like your water just broke at the Renaissance Fort Lauderdale Hotel, 1617 SE 17th St., Fort Lauderdale. Starts at 7:30 p.m. and costs $10. Call 954-581-8126.

SUN 9/21

See Jane Read is the Stonewall Library's book club for women. You won't find any Oprah-loving emotionally distraught housewives here. On the third Sunday of every month, the group meets to discuss a different multicultural novel, biography, or short-story collection. This month, the group reads and discusses Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters, a novel set in the late 1800s that is part Dickensian storytelling and part Sapphic bacchanal. At 472 pages, the book relays a sexually charged tale of two women and feverishly exposes the political, social, and sexual subversions of a gender-bending Victorian England. See Jane Read starts at 3 p.m. at the Stonewall Library, located inside the Gay and Lesbian Community Center (1717 N. Andrews Ave., Fort Lauderdale). Call 954-763-8565.

MON 9/22

Lester Bangs once wrote about Black Sabbath and all the misconceptions about their lyrics and the origins of their supposedly "satanic" music. The best part of the piece was Ozzy Osbourne's anecdote about Sabbath observing a crowd at a show, dressed in black robes and holding candles: "We blew out their candles and sang 'Happy Birthday.' They didn't like that." Yes, death and gloom metal have been the butt of many jokes. But some bands take their penchant for the dark side very seriously. A show of hands, kids. Who likes Black Sabbath? Oh, c'mon Cathedral, raise those hands up high! Crawling from the black, black ashes of Napalm Death, the guys in Cathedral knows it's 2003, but they aren't going to cut their hair. They're just that devoted. Check them out with Switzerland's Samael at the Culture Room, 3045 N. Federal Hwy., Fort Lauderdale. Show starts at 8 p.m. Call 954-564-1074.

TUE 9/23

Melissa Ferrick's back, and she wants you to listen up, or rather Listen Hard, as her brand-spanking-new album suggests. The singer/songwriter may sound like she's from the school of DiFranco, but don't slap a label on her just yet. And while we're speaking of labels, Ferrick runs her own record label called Right On Records, proving she's a woman of independent means. Get it? Check out her triumphant return at Respectable Street, 518 Clematis St., West Palm Beach. Show starts at 8 p.m. Teddy Goldstein and Beverly McClellan open. Call 561-832-9999.

WED 9/24

The often-barren landscape of Fort Lauderdale on a Wednesday night can lead any sane person to drink. But what if you had some good tunes to accompany your liquid diet? And we're not talking about the Matchbox 20 cover band downtown. The DJs of Blowtorch feel your pain. On the last Wednesday of every month, this revolving-door collective spins everything from Rod Stewart and Prince to 2 Live Crew and Golden Earring. Yes, Golden Earring. The last 'Torch burned right up until the final strains of "Me So Horny," as every good party should. Check out this eclectic mix of soul, indie, glam, old school hip-hop, electronic, and rock, and witness grown men reduced to booze-besotted White Guy Dance machines at 10 p.m. at the Fox and Hound (4812 N. Dixie Hwy., Fort Lauderdale). Call 954-491-8869.